WILDWOOD — Dr. Steven Fenichel came to the city's April 25 meeting prepared to speak about his concern that the boardwalk rehabilitation project could come at the expense of the rainforest.
And just in case the speech didn't get everyone's attention, he also brought a big stick, specifically a piece of black locust lumber.
"I remember you said that you wouldn't do anything to damage the rainforest," said Fenichel. "And I have no reason to doubt that you're a man of your word."
"The black locust could be an alternative to rainforest wood," Fenichel said, as he handed the sample over to Mayor Ernie Troiano Jr. and City Engineer Marc DeBlasio for inspection.
The black locust, he said, is a multi-purpose hardwood that is rated by the U.S. Forestry Service. The wood is yellowish in color, and is commonly used in construction since it is resistant to rot.
"If this wood does the job, I have no problem using it," said Troiano.
The use of hardwood for the boardwalk, Troiano said, was needed specifically to support emergency equipment, such as ambulances and fire engines.
"I want to build a boardwalk that lasts," he said.
The pine that has been used might have only been up there for a few years, he said, but it looks 30 years old.  
Troiano said he had looked at approximately 10 or 12 other alternative woods, but "everything foreign had come from the rainforest."
According to Fenichel's calculations, if the city were to replace 42,000 board feet with rainforest wood, approximately 832 acres of rainforest would be logged.
He suggested recycled plastic as another alternative, but Troiano said he had been warned about the material heating up, and making it difficult and painful for tourists to enjoy a summertime stroll.
Currently the bids for the project are under review by the city engineer and solicitor. Once those bids are reviewed and accepted, the document will be sent to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for review and authorization to award.
DeBlasio said he expects to come forward with a bid recommendation in the near future. The actual construction is scheduled to begin in October of this year.
The project has been under scrutiny from environmental groups since Tim Keating, executive director of Rainforest Relief, said he viewed specifications for the decking that called for ipe hardwood back in August 2005.
Keating said that without an independent third party to certify the wood, he feared that use of rainforest wood would be unavoidable.
Ipe, according to Keating, is not from plantations and only grows in densities of about one or two trees per acre. Keating estimated that loggers must log an entire acre of forest just for nine board feet of exported ipe.
According to Keating, the third party certificate issued by Mallinckrodt Gmbh, an independent inspection and grading agency, could not accurately attest to the fact that the materials are obtained under controlled conditions that guarantee the preservation of the forests.
"Mallinckrodt can only attest to the grade of the wood," he said. "Basically they just check to make sure the paperwork is there."
Fenichel told city commissioners that when one encounters a problem they could either walk away from it or take it head on, and the conservation efforts for the rainforest isn't something that he can walk away from.
"We have the opportunity to do the right thing here," he added.
Contact Suit at: (609) 886-8600 ext. 25 or lsuit@cmcherald.com